1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to surveillance and more particularly to surveillance with speckle imaging.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 6,288,974 issued Sep. 11, 2001 for a system and method for enhancing detection of objects through an obscuring medium by Robert S. Nelson and assigned to The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy provides the following state of the art information, “The detection of moving objects through an obscuring media can be a difficult task, even for advanced electronic imaging systems. Image acquisition by electronic systems is most readily accomplished when the moving object is located in a transparent medium. However, even transparent media can contain sources of signal aberrations that make image acquisition difficult. Obscuring media are media that impede image acquisition due to phenomena such as absorption, scattering, aberration, or boundary effects. For purposes of detecting and tracking moving objects, electronic imaging systems are generally preferred over other means of image acquisition for several reasons. Electronic imaging systems are not only able to generate images, but also accurately determine one or more of the position, range, bearing and speed of a moving object. Thus electronic systems can track as well as identify the moving object. Another advantage of electronic imaging systems is the ability of electronic systems to digitize the image signal of the object and perform computational processing tasks such as contrast enhancement, smoothing and blending of adjacent image pixels, deconvolution, and subtraction of one image from another. Electronic imaging systems may not effectively image or track a moving object if the object is moving in an obscuring medium. Certain media obscure the object, that is, make detection difficult . . . . The atmosphere and relevant boundaries may each be obscuring as well. For electromagnetic radiation that is not highly absorbed or scattered by the atmosphere, obscuration may derive from turbulence.”
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0191866 for an image signal processing system by Kazuhiro Tanabe published Dec. 19, 2002 provides the following state of the art information, “The recent video cameras have an electrically zooming-in (or magnifying) function incorporated. That is, a partial image is cut from the image produced from an image pickup device (image sensor) such as CCD, and the data of the partial image is processed by using a memory to change the time base so that the image can be expanded. The image data decreased in the density of its pixels by the extension of the time base is subjected to an electrical interpolation processing in order to compensate for the data, and the interpolation processed data is output at a predetermined data rate.”
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0141653 for image compression by Leonardo Estevez and Karen Oehler published Oct. 3, 2002 provides the following state of the art information, “Recently, Digital Still Cameras (DSCs) have become a very popular consumer appliance appealing to a wide variety of users ranging from photo hobbyists, web developers, real estate agents, insurance adjusters, photo journalists to everyday photography enthusiasts. Recent advances in large resolution CCD arrays coupled with the availability of low-power digital signal processors (DSPs) has led to the development of DSCs that come quite close to the resolution and quality offered by traditional film cameras. These DSCs offer several additional advantages compared to traditional film cameras in terms of data storage, manipulation, and transmission. The digital representation of captured images enables the user to easily incorporate the images into any type of electronic media and transmit them over any type of network. The ability to instantly view and selectively store captured images provides the flexibility to minimize film waste and instantly determine if the image needs to be captured again. With its digital representation the image can be corrected, altered, or modified after its capture.”